So odd that you are in zone 6,and most of my hostas are already gone,and look way worse than yours. I guess it must be that my hostas come two months before those of you all up north. Phil

Ooooh aren't you having fun with that camera - some lovely shots there. Glad we got to share your practice session.
Jan

Those are great shots and it looks like a winner of a camera.

Wow. Very nice. Even the background comes in sharp focus. My hostas look a little closer to sleep than yours too.

Thank you all for the kind comments :)

This camera is certainly going to open up a whole new world for me come spring when everything wakes back up and I can document a full season's growth.

@McTavish - Your photo documentaries are what I hope to achieve in the years to come. It is so nice to be able to see the hostas as each year passes. Certainly takes some diligence to keep up with all the documentation, let alone the uploading of pics, labeling, organizing and such.

I figure if I take a plethora of pics all throughout the growing season I can spend the cold winter months warm inside organizing all the photos and reminding myself of the beauty to come when spring emerges, right ?

@Phil � I remember from earlier in the year you had posted stating that we were in the same zone. I live 13 miles north of Philadelphia proper, technically zone 6b by USDA. It seems we were 6a a couple of years ago but the zones got changed ? I haven�t put that much research into the matter so I am unable to confirm anything. But I do know that we either get winter real early and it gets cold overnight . . . or we have fall like we are this year and the temps gradually decrease.

But like I said, it is 10/22/2012 and it is only getting down to 48 degrees tonight. I checked weather.com for the monthly average and it doesn't have us getting a good consistent freeze until early November. I still have daffodil and hyacinthoides bulbs to plant but I want to wait until a day or two after the first frost.

It is nice though when you have a slow cooling. The trees don't drop overnight and you can watch everything slowly color up.

We are having some marvelous maple displays this year. The bright reds and yellows on decades-old trees will always captivate no matter how much you've seen them. :)

So sad to think about not having anything to play with outside here come a month. Makes me look forward to the alphabet even more (especially since I can contribute).

Thanks again :)

Ludi

Ludi, we might need to have you start a new thread about "keeping up with the documentation--letalone uploading, labeling, organizing and such. Not simply the pictures in an endless folder, but a way to retrieve the one you want.

Note that I am using two or three different programs. I have the free Irfanview which can "batch rename" photos for me. I do that with my HOSTA collection of photos.

Then I use Corel Paintshop Pro X4 (14) where I add names to some of the shots, printing on the photo itself. I also set my camera to add the date taken to the corner of the shot, and I know, it takes away from the artistic nature of the shot.

I also use Paintshop Pro X4 for adding captions and "tags" or "keywords" depending on your preference, same things. When it quits working for me, I switch over to Windows Live Photo Gallery (or whatever they call it) which allows me to do the same kind of "tagging" and captioning and title adding. I could also put the author's name if I so liked.

After I've done this, I can then open up Flickr Uploader and from my computer choose the shots I just indexed to be added to my Flickr upload, and it will let me add it to my Photostream on Flickr, as well as automatically add it to the sets/collections/whatever I choose.

One thing I am cautious about is the geotagging. I think a generic location is fine, do not want to put out the specific GPS fine location. With many of the new cameras, you must be conscious of the setting for fine location. If you are on vacation, putting the specific geo locators is fine, but when you show your house or your kid's school, I would be more cautious.

Anyway, if you wish to start a thread on that topic, it's one that goes nicely with labeling your hosta.

Ludi,

You can take winter pictures. Last year was a mild winter, but here's a few I took last year.

Ornamental Kale

Viola taken on 12/27

Pinus Strobus 'Winter Gold' taken in February

Hippeastrum 'Cherish' (OK I cheated this one is inside)

Then again if you plant seeds you can still take pics of Hostas all winter long.

Steve